U.S.-based Cargill has acquired a 5% stake in Ukraine’s largest agribusiness holding UkrLandFarming. UkrLandFarming is the world’s eighth largest land cultivator and the world’s second biggest egg producer through its 77% ownership of Avangardco. The purchase is a strategic move for Cargill that will provide the company with a partnership for future grain exports to China as that country is increasingly rejecting imports of U.S. corn and is shifting its purchases to Ukraine. Last year Ukraine harvested a record 29 million tons of corn and hopes to increase exports this season by 35% to 18 million tons. Currently Ukraine is competing with Argentina to be the world’s third largest corn exporter, however if this goal is realized, it would elevate Ukraine to one of the world’s top corn exporting countries. Ukraine made its first corn shipments to China last year as part of a $3 billion loan-for-corn deal, and UkrLandFarming plans to sell up to 700,000 tons of corn to China this season with the goal of boosting total annual exports to 6 million tons within 5 years, with 2 million of those tons destined for Asia. Cargill began operating in Ukraine in 1991, and since has acquired or built an animal feed mill, sunflower seed processing capacity, and grain silos. Bunge, Archer Daniels Midland, and Glencore all have processing plants and export terminals in Ukraine as well.
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